Embarrassed, uncomfortable, self-conscious, humiliating.

These are all words that Ma Sabai, a 14 year old girl, living with her family in an isolated farming village in the Magway region of Myanmar, used to describe how she felt struggling to cope with menstruation.

For billions of adolescent girls and women around the world, periods are just a normal part of life. But in Myanmar, girls like Ma Sabai are faced with shame, stigma, and taboo – not to mention a lack of access to period products and sanitation facilities, particularly in school. These obstacles are having a profound impact on girls’ education, their health and their wellbeing.

Thanks to Burnet’s menstrual health program in schools in Myanmar, Ma Sabai’s life was changed.

Burnet provided training and aids to teachers to enable effective delivery of sexual reproductive health lessons in the classroom. We provided resources for the library, and private changing rooms and waste bins. We provided each girl who needed it, including Ma Sabai, with a menstrual hygiene kit, containing pads and other necessary items, with instructions.

Every girl has a right to be able to manage her own body, and your gift today, supporting Burnet’s life-changing adolescent health research and programs in Myanmar, will give young girls just like Ma Sabai the ability to take control of their health and focus on the future.

*Now is a perfect time to support our research and programs supporting adolescent health in Myanmar, as your gift will be DOUBLED if you donate before 31 December 2020.

A very generous supporter of Burnet with an interest in young people’s health, The Drakensberg Trust, has pledged $75,000. So every dollar you give today will be doubled, making your gift help twice as many girls like Ma Sabai.